4th Annual NYCAASC: Food in Motion Panel and More

Saturday, April 17th, marked the culmination of months of extensive planning for the 4th Annual New York Asian American Student Conference (NYCAASC). In a nutshell, it is a full-day completely free, NYC student-organized event dedicated to raising awareness of Asian/Pacific/American (APA) issues, primarily to students, but it's open to anyone in the general public who is interested. The day revolves around three "tracks" of workshops, with some truly inspiring speakers, and includes FREE breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner, and concerts at night. There are some icebreakers and a newly revamped Quizbowl to get the conversation rolling among the attendees too. So, basically it's free food, entertainment, and lots of learning. What's to lose with something that has no strings attached?

My role in NYCAASC was a workshop coordinator, which means I selected topics, reached out to potential speakers, and tried to keep my G-mail inbox from imploding. It was my pleasure to help facilitate a really informative panel about Entrepreneurship: Making our OWN Opportunities, co-sponsored by the Asian-American Entrepreneurs Network (http://www.aen-nyc.com), and moderated by Ramon Gil. The panel that I primarily worked on, since I had more personal knowledge and experience, was about Food in Motion:Asian Americans Changing the Culinary Scene.

How do Asian Americans affect America's ever-fluctuating culinary scene? We are no longer constrained to close-quartered, run-down, stone-walled Chinatown spaces, but instead are branching out into new areas, new methods of distribution, and new integrations of food and culture. Even the idea of a traditional recipe has been taken with a grain of salt, challenged, and pushed to shape what the American public understands as “Asian food." As our modes of innovation and representation change, so does the American palate, and thus, Asian cuisine in America as we know it.

Speakers: Joseph Tien (Mantao Chinese Sandwiches), Thomas Yang (NYC Cravings truck), Emery Huang (Baohaus), Jerome Chang (Dessert Truck Works), Christina Seid (Chinatown Ice Cream Factory)
Moderated by: Melissa Zhang

The panel was dynamic and covered a breadth of topics, from price point and premiums to modes of distribution and space, community support or backlash, authenticity versus innovation, and media representation of Asian food. You can actually find a great video clip of the panel, captured by the folks at Baohaus here:


NYU Food Panel from Hoodman Clothing on Vimeo.

All the speakers gave really insightful responses, and I wish we had more than 70 minutes for the workshop. The crowd had filled up all the chairs and were even sitting on the ground! For this being my first time moderating, I was happily surprised by the turnout of people who were interested in learning more about Asian Americans in the food industry.

There was some minor gripe about this being a Chinese American-heavy panel, or there not being samples of food (what free dinner afterwards?), but the final line is that you can't cover all the bases. We do what we can to get the ball rolling, and hope that the result will ignite future discussions and changes. This is, after all, Change in Motion, especially for Food in Motion. I encourage everyone to go out and visit these business owners' places, and put our money where our mouths are to support the community and honestly, just flat out good food.




I want to extend a big "THANK YOU" to everyone who saw me through this process.  The end conclusion was worth all the missed brunches due to 5-hour meetings every Sunday for the past half year of planning. So here's where I get all mushy and sentimental, but I do mean every word.

To the speakers, if we haven't said it enough, I want to pen it in digital ink how much we appreciate you setting aside the time to speak at the conference. I hope that this experience and the follow-up comments will help motivate you to keep up the great work that you're doing.

To the NYCAASC board, this was one of the most rewarding and impactful things I've ever done. I am so impressed by everyone in the planning committee for their dedication and hard work, and I'm already looking forward to joining other alumni in next year's 5th NYCAASC.

To friends and new faces alike who showed your support, whether by helping spread the word or coming to attend, it means a lot to me. You guys kept me from turning into a ball of nerves, and the kind words and follow up comments have really made me smile. Let's go eat a celebration dinner! 

Most of all, it was FUN. Tiring, but fun. We talked about whales, nuts, and of course, ideas that the creative energy from all of the ideas flowing around sparked. I'm grateful for the opportunity to make my various interest intersect, and to bring some people along for what was hopefully, a fun ride.

You can find out more information about next year's NYCAASC by keeping an eye on www.nycaasc.com and following www.twitter.com/nycaasc. Photos from the event can be found on my Flickr by clicking [here].

News Flash: Home Cooked Food Tastes Good

A typical meal in my household means 8 dishes for 3 people.

I've never been particularly picky in my ethnic dining choices, especially since I love variety. But whenever someone asks if I have preferences, I usually say "no Chinese or Mexican". Mexican, because I'm from Texas and I embrace Tex-Mex, in spite of all the naysayers who crave "authentic" Mexican food. I've been unfazed by most of the Mexican renditions in NYC which for some reason boast either fully Mexican or SF/Northern Cali-Mex food. Chinese, because I have an amazing cook of a mother whose skills I never fully appreciated until I left the nest and started craving dishes that I'm not sure had names in any language.


Egg-topped Ramen for breakfast with Pork Belly and Asparagus dishes. Gotta love my parents.

"Real" Chinese food, AKA: Stuff-Chinese-People-Actually-Eat-at-Home, really isn't the cesspools of grease that most Chinese-American cuisine presents. Therein lies the difference between Chinese food and Chinese-American food: Who the audience is. Some restaurants have menus that have been translated into English for the most part, but will either offer a Chinese only menu to select clientele or at least have a little untranslated box housing the simultaneously more exotic and more traditional dishes. Yesss, special boxes! Except I can't read Chinese anymore. D'oh.

My parents recently visited me this Christmas weekend since it was the first time I didn't return home for the holidays. I'm sure it won't be the last time work starts to take on a bigger role in my life, and plus it was a good lure to get them to come up and re-stock my frid- I mean, spend time with me. Happily. Eating.

Let me take you on a food journey:


On Christmas Day, we went down to Chinatown and got ingredients to make Pork, Chive, and Shrimp dumplings. We didn't always make them this way, but my mom started adding shrimp in because she claims it adds moisture, and who am I to argue with more meat?

It's tradition to make the dough from scratch, and plus the sweat [and tears] are natural seasoning. I kid, I kid. Chinese food is safe!


We even had this as a sort of Chinese Buche de Noel. Granted, this wasn't homemade, but I couldn't resist showing off the prettiness of this cake roll. Even though I'm not a huge fan of the single flavor ones, my inner five-year old couldn't resist this one's nutty exterior and fun colors.


Shrimp sauteed with onions in a mystery tomato sauce. I was too busy watching Food Network to see what she put in it. Hello, irony. We meet again.

In the background are pig trotters and pig snout. Did I mention we like meat, especially pork? I don't think I've ever craved chicken, but I'm always up for some piggy goodness. It's the Chinese White Meat.


Brussels Sprouts with Pork Belly in a brown sauce reduction. I wasn't sure where she was going with this, but my skepticism melted as soon as I tasted it. After all, there always has to be some sort of greenery in a meal, even if it is mixed in with meat. That's why pure vegetarianism, besides in the monasteries, is relatively novel in Chinese cuisine.

So, okay. I eat Real Stuff. Good for me, right?

Except no, not really. I stave off any hankering for the food until I can eat my mom's cooking, which happens,oh, about twice a year. I admit to cheating with the occasional Xiao Long Bao Zi or my favorite buns from Mei Li Wah, but for the most part, I've had a solid few decades of Chinese food versus not nearly enough of every other food in this world.

So I'll continue to eat hummus, sushi, pasta, and mountains of cupcake for the next few months until we meet again. After all, I've been in an unusual sugar low after all this healthy Chinese food. Gotta make up for it!*

*Already well on my way with the slice of cake next to my laptop.